A question that people often ask me is why is a family so important? You might think that I would have at least one pat answer to the question after working with families for over 3 decades. However, my life experience gives me multiple reasons why the family is both important and vital to everyone. Ready to learn why your family is so important?

Reason #1 – Your family is important because God made it very clear from the beginning that ‘family’ is foundational to His plan for humanity. God could have created human beings in any form imaginable. Yet, He chose to create humans as males and females. Adam and Eve, His first man and woman, were immediately drawn into a relationship with each other and given the commandment to be fruitful and multiply. Even small children can see and

understand how intentional God was about creating people to be part of a family.

God’s plan for the family is built upon a man’s love for his wife, a woman who loves her husband, and children conceived within their parent’s stable, lasting, and fruitful union. Obviously, this structure can be embraced or ignored. Those that choose to form families as God designed from the start or those who come back around to the design later are most likely to enjoy each other and find fulfillment.

Reason #2 – Your family is the foundation of civilization. It is likely that you have heard the phrase – as the family goes, so goes the nation. A simple Google search will point to scads of research articles and papers that explain how the family, which is the basic cell of society, has a direct, worldwide impact. All these scholarly papers point out the obvious: strong families equal strong societies. They also conclude that when families struggle, the culture struggles.

It is always impressive when secular research agrees with the Church. Shortly after becoming Pope, Francis had this to say. The family is important, and it is necessary for the survival of humanity. Without the family, the cultural survival of the human race would be at risk. The family, whether we like it or not, is the foundation. This leads to the next point.

Reason #3 – Your family is the best environment to learn about love and experience its fullness. If you remember that love means to will the good of another it is easy to understand why a houseful of

people provides a perfect place to love. The close quarters of a home offer each family member ample opportunities to pay attention to those they live with.

Because no family can love perfectly, arguments and disagreements will happen. When your family chooses to work through these difficulties in love, it can grow in charity and consequently learn to love more perfectly. This is why your family can refer to itself as a school of deeper humanity.

Reason #4 – Your family is meant to be other-focused. It has the power to smother selfish desires and replace them with generosity. It is where you teach each other how to be interdependent, not independent. It is where you stop competing and begin to collaborate. Your family is where you practice manners, civility, and respect for others. It is where you see the value in laying our lives down for one another.

Reason #5 – Your family is the safest place on earth. It is where you step away from the pressures and pace of the culture. Your family is an oasis for everyone; a place to rest, rejuvenate and just be. It is your haven to catch your breath and experience harmony.

Reason #6 – Your family bonds you together. Like it or not, you will always be part of the lives of those in your family. Your thoughts and actions, dreams and fears, aspirations and failures intertwine. They weave a pattern of belonging for you that can never be undone. Your family helps you discover who you are in God’s image and receive guidance on how to live out your vocation in His name. Your family bonds you to your family of origin and to the greater family of God. This is how you become ‘fully human’.

Reason #7 – Your family makes you holy. Well, it can make you holy when you learn to see each person is an instrument of God’s love. No matter what your clan does to annoy, hurt, scare, or delight you, they always provide you with a choice to either love them or not. You become holy when you choose to love in all situations. Holiness is what you become when you center your family life in Christ; when you reach beyond the world’s wisdom toward God’s divinity. Your family was designed by God to bring you to heaven. That is why it is so important to you.